View full sizeAssociated PressIn this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo, a small boat rescues a crew member from the water as heavy smoke rolls out of the stricken USS West Virginia after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Two men can be seen on the superstructure, upper center. The mast of the USS Tennessee is beyond the burning West Virginia. Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the attack that brought the United States into World War II.

A pair of Oregonians who survived the Dec. 7 attacks, 91-year-old Harvey Waldron of Tumalo and 89-year-old Charles Sellentin of LaPine, are visiting Pearl Harbor this week, courtesy of a Denver non-profit.

Sellentin was in the Coast Guard serving aboard the USS Taney, which slowly weighed anchor and went to sea, spending the next day dropping depth charges to deter Japanese submarines from entering the harbor.

For Waldron, this is his first trip to the islands in 50 years. He was a member of the Navy's Utility Squadron 1, a non-combat support squadron. He was standing at a hangar when he saw the Japanese fighters appeared overhead, climbing up from battleship row, where they had unleashed their bombs. As they climbed, they were close enough, Waldron said, that he saw the pilot wave at him.

"It keeps popping up in my mind, so I think it happened," he said Tuesday morning. "The pilots were leaning over as they passed, looking down at us."

But the aircraft at Waldron's hangar were amphibious observation planes, clearly not a combat threat. Another sailor ran outside, shouting that the Japanese were attacking. By then the fighters were gone.

Not only are the memories of war vivid for Waldron, but so is the memory of the time when he was young, strong and newly married. He and his new bride shared an apartment on the island and for four days, they didn't know whether the other had survived Dec. 7. When he got a four-hour break, he hurried home and they were reunited.

This week's trip has "recalled quite a number of incidences for me," he said. "Outside of the war, there are a lot of really fond memories for me."